SMX West 2014: Build Your Audience And Communicate Effectively

There’s a certain amount of excitement you get when the people in your profession that you “stalk” online are sitting right in front of you. They are at the same conference as you, listening to every word you are listening to. You sit right next to them. You are one of them.

Remember that time you tweeted some jerk-ass comment & then @mattcutts responded to you? Heh, yea.. that. #SMX

I’m at SMX West, a search marketing expo in San Jose. Everyone has their own ideas and thoughts. It’s amazing to see a communicator on stage, the way the passion rolls off their tongue.

It’s About Communication

I’m not going to lie: There were some presenters I simply sat through. But, for others, I was fully engaged, taking every word like it was the first word I have ever heard. Do you want to know what the people I was engaged with had? PASSION. These people aren’t in it for the money. They are in it for the love (or, at least, they fake it pretty darn well.) I see passion because that’s what I have — most days. It’s such an energy to be around in a place where you’re surrounded by like-minded people.

I’ve wanted to communicate with others so much here. I previously had used Twitter as a marketing tool, but never found it useful for myself. My eyes are open now. I was able to communicate with Matt Cutts, Rand Fishkin, Danny Sullivan and Barry Schwartz. They responded to simple questions I had or comments I made. That was rewarding. It’s all about reaching out to others.

Communication is key to any industry. I’m not suggesting that Twitter is the key — but it may be. Every industry has its star players, and communicating with them can be very helpful in any industry. Finding the way to communicate with them is key. Communication can come in many forms — email, social media, phone or more. You need to find out how.

But not only do you want to communicate with key players — you want to reach the audience your business is going after.

Building an Audience

One thing I’ve heard over and over and OVER here is that you need to build your audience. But how does one build that audience?

My takeaway: through productive communication. This doesn’t have to be face-to-face, or even back-and-forth. But it has to be direct. The big 2014 term is (drum roll please) … DATA. There is so much data in today’s online marketing world.

Use the data you have to generate communication towards the people you want to pay attention. If you can do this right in today’s marketing world, you will reap the rewards.

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Discussion

Landon Harlan • March 13, 2014

Good Post Foody! I never particularly found Twitter useful myself, and the retweet/regurgitation of news did not have much appeal to broadcast what I read. But as for the the two-way discussions, some users are quicker to respond than by email. Keep us posted on what you find out today.

Dean Dowd • March 13, 2014

I think Passion is what set’s the leaders from the rest. Great post Foody!

Landon, my theory is that you’ll get a quicker response from Twitter because A) The conversation is out in the open public where you’re “exposed” if you respond or not and B) The character limit speeds up response time as well as lowers the expectations of how in depth one can be in 140 characters.

Good work Foody, love the passion!

March 12, 2014

As Obu's Manager of Online Advertising William Foody believes that hands-on experience is the only true measure of knowledge, and testing and retesting is the only way to gain experience. Follow Will on twitter @wfoody.